Whistle making help needed

[highwood]

Screw machine length drills are shorter length (about 5/8ths the length of Jobber length drills - which are the common ones)

I use my small mill to drill tone holes, cut windways, windows, ramps, and ...
I added a couple cheap digital readouts which make operations much faster, accurate, repeatable, and less prone to mistakes.

[CarvedTones]

I visited my friend the production NAF maker earlier today and he showed me how he does the tone hole drilling on the mill. He has the flute in a jig with a fetish/totem on it (what closes the outside windway) and a story stick next to it. He cranks the handle to move the jig and does a pilot hole on each tone hole starting nearest the top/windway using a bit slightly smaller than the smallest tone hole bit. Then when he gets to the last hole, he swaps out the bit for what he thinks it should be there and drills. He puts his fingers on the other holes, blows in the tube and if/while it is flat goes a bit size larger. He does the pilot holes first so the tuning won't flatten much when he does the other holes. He cranks up to the next hole and repeats the process. I thought the pilot holes and using the tubing to check the tuning while it is in the jig are pretty cool ideas.

[wormil]

I considered a drill press, but I do not like the fact that with a drill press I need to move the table with the work piece up or down when changing to different size drill bits. I like the drill table and work piece at a constant height, bolted down to my work table, so I can do the job sitting down and have the same view and arm angles. Perhaps a bit primitive, but it suits me (apart from the fact that a power drill is noisier than a drill press).

You could make a jig with 2 sliding triangles to support the whistle. Slide them together raises the whistle, sliding them apart lowers it; then you can leave the table alone.

[CarvedTones]

That's not a magic number, it's just that an eBay seller had some NOS bits that are 0.4840" x 16" at a really good price.

Heehee. I bought one of those too. It's not like I needed another gundrill. But you are right, it was a good price. Couldn't pass it up. My drill has not gotten here yet. Have you tried yours out yet, CarvedTones?

Feadoggie

Finally I can say Yes. It came several days ago but I had a lot of 14mm drilled blanks to process (still have some, but they are moving into later stages and making room for me to start others). It works fine. It does require more care in making sure you help it stay centered. Even though it is smaller than my 14mm gun drill bit (I only have 2 gun drill bits right now) it is more rigid due to its shorter length, so if you feed it aimed slightly off, it can't self center as easily as a whippier bit. Very sharp - almost purely shavings blowing back out and only a little dust.